Barry's nightmares
by wolfypuppypiles
Summary: Barry is having nightmares but wont tell Patty what they are about until they get out of hand and Patty has to call in for some help.


Patty groaned and squeezed her eyes shut. Thump. Something was kicking her, that something having pulled her from her very lovely dream which she wanted very much to get back to. The thing in the bed jolted again, this time with a whimper and Patty suddenly remembered that the thing was Barry.

Her mind instantly sharpened and she sat up in the bed as her boyfriend made another noise of distress. They had been spent the night together a few times now but this had never happened. She looked down at the scientist as his head tossed on his pillow and his hands grasped the sheets. He was having a nightmare.

Patty didn't have any siblings and none of her other boyfriends had ever had bad dreams in her bed so she hesitated, not knowing what to do. She had read somewhere that waking people from nightmares had to be done carefully or they could lash out. The cop bit her lip and watched as tears slipped from Barry's eyes. He started whimpering again, this time with a name desperately called out in terror.

"Patty. Please, don't hurt her."

He whimpered again and Patty couldn't take it anymore. Laying a careful hand on her boyfriend's arm she knelt beside him on the bed and called to him.

"Barry? It's just a dream, its okay I'm here. I'm safe."

Barry's head turned towards her but his eyes were still screwed shut and Patty didn't know if he could hear her in his dream state. Patty shook him a little, calling out to him again.

"No, no, no, no. Patty!" The CSI screamed, sitting up in the bed with his eyes wide open but seeing nothing. He was panting and his hands were still clutching the sheets. Fresh tears ran down his cheeks.

Patty lifted careful hands to his face and pulled his focus to her, wiping his tears away with gentle fingers.

"Hey, it's okay. It was just a dream, I'm here."

Barry's eyes filled with tears once again as he looked at her and his face crumpled as he hiccupped.

Barry had cried a lot in his lifetime and a lot even since he woke up from the coma. He wasn't one to say that ears made you weak, in fact he believed showing you're emotions and weaknesses made you strong. But waking from a bad dream and then bawling in front of your girlfriend wasn't something he had been planning and he didn't feel at all strong when he hiccup cried into Patty's shoulder.

Patty rubbed his back and held him after he practically curled into her arms. He was holding her so tight it was like he had watched her die and only just gotten her back. Considering the fact that he had just had a bad dream she thought that might actually be the case.

He calmed down and wiped his face before letting her go and turning to face the wall, embarrassed.

"I'm sorry. I woke you up and then cried and made a mess and you should be sleeping, I'm sorry."

Patty caught Barry's hand and squeezed it, waiting till he looked at her to talk.

"It's fine Barry. It's not your fault. Do you want to talk about it?"

Barry quickly shook his head and gave her a weak smile.

"No, no it's fine. Just a dream." He was still looking at her with a shaky expression though. Like he could lose her at any moment. She rubbed his back again and pecked a kiss on his lips.

"Okay, let's go back to sleep then." Barry sighed, thinking she had dropped it until she added.

"We'll talk about it tomorrow." Patty tugged him down onto the mattress beside her and pulled the duvet over them both, snuggling into him and squeezing his hand once more.

Barry didn't want to sleep again after what he saw. Zoom attacking Patty, holding her off a building. And he hadn't been able to move, his speed had not only been gone but his body had been frozen and he could only watch in helpless agony as the monster dropped his girlfriend off a skyscraper.

But she was warm and safe beside him, her eyelids fluttering as her half lidded eyes blinked at him, waiting for him to answer.

Shifting further down in the blankets, Barry leant over for a kiss, savouring the shape and taste of her, wanting to fall asleep thinking about her.

"Okay."

….

Patty couldn't help but notice Barry becoming distant in the days after his nightmare. He would suddenly be too busy to go out to lunch or he would leave her to do all the talking at dinner. It was as if he believed he had revealed too much of himself and was now keeping guard against another slip up.

Their talk about the nightmare hadn't even really been a talk. She had asked if he had them often and what it was about but he had only mumbled something about getting them when he was little and then distracted her with a make out session. She had to get better at keeping a level head when he did that but damn when he smiled in that cheeky way of his and grabbed her waist to pull her to him, she couldn't think of anything else.

The nightmares continued after a few days, coming back and plaguing the usually confident CSI every few nights so he hardly wanted to sleep, much less with her.

She felt shut out from him when he made excuses not to stay the night or when he refused to tell her what they were about. She decided to just tell him about what he had been yelling.

"Barry you were yelling my name. Begging someone to let me go. If you're worried about me getting hurt in my job I can assure you I know how to handle a gun."

He shook his head and stood from her bed, fiddling his hands in front of him and pacing the room nervously.

"It's not that, I know you can take care of yourself. I just…. There are things out there that can't be stopped by guns." He shook his head suddenly and winced as if he'd said something he wasn't supposed to. Patty just wanted to make him feel safe, like he could tell her anything. But he wouldn't even tell her about a bad dream.

The detective walked to her boyfriend and took his hands, wrapping them around her waist so she could hug him, pressing herself to his chest.

"I know about meta humans Barry but I'm not worried. I'm right here with you and we're going to be fine."

He nodded, his face pressed to her hair, and leaned back long enough to kiss her forehead.

"You're right. I'm being silly." His smile was small and not all the way sincere. Patty counted this small conversation as a victory in the 'getting Barry to share more' department and decided not to push anymore for tonight.

Pulling him to the bed they snuggled down in the blankets, curled close to each other, and said goodnight, hoping tonight would be a restful one.

Barry held Patty, feeling her breathes even out and muscles relax as she fell asleep against him but all he could think about was Zoom. He couldn't let him take her, he wouldn't. Barry's eyes slipped shut as he felt Patty's soft breaths puff against his neck. He would keep her safe.

There was too much blood to be all hers. It couldn't be. It looked just like one of the many crime scenes Barry had worked on but instead of looking for clues all he could see was her. Patty was leaning against a wall, hands pressed to her stomach in an attempt to stop the bleeding from the claw marks that stretched across her torso. Barry knew what they were from, if he didn't have speed healing he would have scars from when he had those claw marks himself.

Zoom had attacked her. She was looking at him, tears leaving tracks down her face as she cried and Barry knelt beside her. He pressed his shaking hands to the wounds as the red kept coming, staining his skin and pooling on the ground around them. It was warm and Barry couldn't help notice that Patty was getting colder as her warmth slipped out with her blood. She was dying.

The speedster started shaking harder, whole body erupting in shudders as Patty finally spoke to him.

"Barry, you didn't protect me. How could you let this happen? First your mother, then Eddie and now me? Why did you kill us?"

Barry gasped at her words and his chest tightened in pain. Tears dripped from his eyes and his breathing sped up.

"Patty I didn't- I'm sorry- Zoom." He couldn't even finish a sentence and Patty was dying.

"Barry you promised to protect me."

He started breathing harder, still not getting enough oxygen, as if there wasn't enough no matter how fast he pulled air in. He shook his head, sending teardrops flying.

"No, Patty, I'm going to fix this. You'll be okay."

Suddenly Patty was gone from under his hands and was instead a few meters away in Zooms claws as he loomed over her weak body.

"I don't think so. Flash." His deep haunting voice made Barry tremble and then scream in terror as his black talons came down on Patty's throat. Barry's girlfriend stared at him with her dead eyes as Barry watched the red drain out of her as Zoom stood and laughed.

Barry screamed himself awake, sitting up in bed and sending his shaking hands flying everywhere to figure out where he was. Patty woke with a start beside him and immediately turned on the lamp beside the bed and screamed. The sheets were covered in blood, it was all over Barry and he almost passed out at the sight of it.

Patty immediately found the source to be Barry's nose and grabbed tissues as he continued to hyperventilate.

"Barry, hey, calm down. It's okay, it's just a nose bleed." But Barry couldn't hear her over the echo of Zoom's laugh in his ears and the sight of Patty dying in front of him. He was panicking, grabbing Patty's arms and staring at her blood covered night shirt with wide, shining eyes.

"Patty, no. I'm sorry." He didn't even seem to realize she was talking to him and continued to stare at the blood over them both. He let go of her arms to stare down at himself where most of the blood was covering his shirt and hands.

"Oh my god it's all over me. It's all my fault." His eyes shone wet with tears and his breathing was so fast Patty was worried he would pass out soon if it didn't slow down. His nose was still sluggishly bleeding and knew that it would get worse as he panicked.

"Barry, I need you to calm down. Everything's alright but you need to breathe."

He stood shakily from the bed and stumbled to the bathroom, throwing his hands into the sink and furiously turning on the water. He was scrubbing at his hands and his breathing strained further, whistling past his teeth as he began to cry, his whole chest seizing up. The red swirled down the drain but there was so much of it and he could barely breathe.

Patty came up behind him and put her hands on his arms. "Barry, breathe, please. Calm down, you're going to pass out."

And as if his body decided it really liked that idea, his vision blurred and his eyes rolled. The scientist could barely hold onto the sink to keep himself up as his world swayed.

Patty grabbed him in an attempt to hold him up.

"Barry! Oh my god I'm calling an ambulance."

Barry slumped to the floor and leant, sitting up, against the wall, trying desperately to just _breathe_. His whole chest was tight like a vice, and his hands almost vibrated from where he pressed them against the wall in order to keep himself there but he needed to tell Patty something.

Patty tried to keep herself calm as she grabbed her phone and was about to dial for an ambulance when Barry managed to push a few words past his red stained lips.

"No. Call. Cait…lin. Dr…Snow."

His eyes rolled again from the effort of speaking and he scrunched his eyes closed.

Patty hesitated, her finger hovering over the last digit before cursing and grabbing Barry's phone instead, thumbing through his contacts until she found the one she needed. Forgetting the hour of the morning in which she was calling, the detective started talking as soon as the call was answered. 

"Dr Snow? I wanted to call an ambulance but Barry said to call you instead so I assume you know Barry Allen? I'm his girlfriend and I just woke up to him screaming- he gets nightmares- but he was covered in blood and his nose was bleeding but he freaked out and started hyperventilating and I couldn't get him to calm down. And there's blood everywhere and I think he's going to pass out soon and I don't know what to do I don't even know if it's the anxiety but he's having trouble breathing and I think I might have a panic attack soon too because I don't know what's happening or how to help him and I'm _covered in blood-"_

Caitlin interrupted the crying woman before she word vomit anymore, having woken up immediately after hearing about the blood.

"Okay, calm down. I'm a friend of Barry's and his doctor now I need you to calm down and take a deep breath. Where are you?"

Patty gave the woman her address and could hear a computer tapping and a few other things banging in the background before the doctor spoke again.

"Okay I'll be there as soon as I can, how's Barry doing?"

Patty walked back to the bathroom where the CSI was still shaking violently against the wall, heaving breaths coming out of him, his eyes closed as he swayed even as he sat.

"Still not good. He's shaking a lot and I think he may be in shock." Patty was calming down now that someone else knew what they were doing. Dr Snow was asking questions and was coming and she would take care of it. Patty was a detective, she could take down bad guys and handle the science and physical aspects of her job well but this….she wasn't a doctor, she didn't have any experience with something like this. She didn't know what to do.

"From the trauma or blood loss?" Caitlin's sharp authoritative voice snapped her eyes away from Barry.

"I don't know, probably both."

There were two kinds of shock. The kind that a witness or victim goes into after trauma when they freak out at every little sound and don't respond to people talking to them. And there was the other kind of shock that caused peoples bodies to shut down after a huge loss of blood or other serious trauma and Patty knew it was only a nose bleed but….there was a lot of blood. She'd seen crime scenes cleaner than this.

She heard a car engine start from the other end of the phone.

"okay, detective, I'm going to need you to try and stop the bleeding. Try holding something against Barry's nose and hold it shut. Tip his head slightly forward and make sure he's sitting up. Can you do that?"

Patty nodded and grabbed a towel as she entered the bathroom, putting the phone on speaker and laying it beside her as she knelt next to Barry. He flinched and cowered away from her as she pressed the towel to his nose but Patty put a hand on the back of his neck, guiding him where he needed to be and holding him still.

"I'm almost there, just hold on." Caitlin's voice from the phone made Barry flinch again and Patty watched his face closely. His eyes were closed and he barley look conscious.

Patty's apartment door banged open and she jumped a little at the sudden noise, turning around enough to look at the entrance to her bedroom.

To her surprise, it was not Dr Snow that came through but Detective West, looking panicked at the sight of his son, covered in blood and curled on the floor. He stopped suddenly at the sight of blood before coming down beside them.

"Caitlin called me, what happened?"

Patty looked nervously at her partner as she held the now blood soaked towel to Barry's face.

"He had a nightmare, he's been getting them a a lot but this time he completely freaked out and his nose was bleeding. He started hyperventilating and he couldn't calm down. I didn't know what to do."

Joe tore his eyes from Barry long enough to meet eyes with Patty and pat her shoulder.

"It's okay, Caitlin's here now, she'll take care of him."

Patty looked up to the doorway again to see the doctor come in with a bag, putting it down to out some sterilised gloves on.

"Okay, Barry can you hear me?"

She knelt down beside her patient, Joe taking over the towel holding and put a hand on his son's chest as he sagged further to the floor. Patty moved out the way to give them adequate space.

Barry's eyelids flickered as he tried to look at the doctor and respond. Caitlin took a penlight and lifted each of his eyelids to shine it at him. The boy flinched weakly away from the light and Caitlin caught his arm in time to stop him swiping her penlight away.

"Joe, help me get him to the bed."

Joe started lifting Barry, whose head would have toppled backwards if Caitlin hadn't taken over with the towel on his nose. Joe gently manoeuvred his son to sit on the bed while Patty stuffed pillows behind them so they could sit him up. Joe sat behind Barry and leant him against his chest, wrapping an arm around the kid and letting his head rest back on his shoulder. Joe looked worriedly down at Barry, who was dazedly staring at Caitlin.

"Cait?"

The doctor looked up for a moment, concentrating on getting the bleeding stopped and his breathing stable. 

"Yeah Barry, You're alright I'm gonna get this bleeding stopped. Joe's here too he's right behind you."

Barry's eyes drifted for a moment before coming to Joe's face. Caitlin was taking Barry's blood pressure now and looked to Patty hovering behind them.

"It's alright Patty. He just bleeds a lot because his heart beats faster than normal since the lightening. We'll take him back to S.T.A.R Labs and monitor him for the rest of the night but he'll be mostly fine by tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you. I know it's really late-or early- but Barry insisted on calling you instead of an ambulance."

Caitlin nodded. "I'm Barry's Doctor and friend I don't mind coming and anytime Barry gets hurt or sick just call me and be right over. The hospital won't be able to help him like I can. He system was somewhat changed after the lightening."

Dr Snow finished with whatever else she had been doing and packed everything back in her bag.

"Joe, let's move him to the van, the bleedings stopped now."

Patty watched, with hands ready in case they needed help, as her partner carried Barry out of the apartment. She wanted to go with them but it was clear she wasn't invited. Caitlin paused before leaving.

"You can come and see him tomorrow if you like, it's just that he's mostly going to be sleeping and he's quite sensitive to people seeing him hurt. Thank you for calling me Patty."

The doctor left the detective in her blood stained apartment and Patty realized she'd never told the doctor her name. Barry must have told her about their relationship. She smiled despite herself as she started cleaning up.

….

Barry woke to beeping. Not the beeping of his alarm clock either, more like the beeping of a monitor…..

Though he only just woke up Barry was so tired he would have happily gone back to sleep if someone hadn't squeezed his hand. Blinking his eyes open the CSI saw Iris clutching his hand as she slept, curled over at his bedside. His sigh caught the attention of Joe, who was leaning against the wall nearby.

"Hey, Bar. You feeling any better?"

Barry shook his head. He felt like crap. He was exhausted, his mouth was as dry as hell in a drought and he had a throbbing headache. Also his nose felt swollen.

Joe came to sit beside him, careful not to wake his daughter.

"Yeah well you bled almost everything you had out of your nose. Patty told us you've been having nightmares." Joe fixed him with his 'lie to me and I will know' glare.

Barry groaned. He hadn't wanted anyone to know the nightmares were back. He wasn't a child.

"I don't need you to sit by my bed till I fall asleep Joe, I can handle them."

"Apparently not. Barry you were freaking out and Patty said the bad dreams have been going on for a while. Why didn't you say anything? Why did I have to see you covered in blood, barely responding in order to know that you've been having trouble?"

Barry slipped his hand from Iris' to sit up more in the medical cot he was in. He ran his hands through his hair and tried to come up with an excuse that wouldn't get him in trouble. He couldn't think of one, so changed the subject instead.

"What's Iris doing here she should be at work."

Joe crossed his arms and Barry knew he hadn't gotten out of it.

"Its four in the afternoon Barry, you've been asleep for twelve hours. Once she found out that you were in here she came straight here. That was at five this morning so she's pretty tired. Patty came to see you too but she had to go back to work for a case. She's been doing the lab work for you today so she's a little busy but she told us to call her when you woke up."

Barry winced.

"Oh Patty. What am I going to tell her?"

Joe sighed, kinder than his annoyed tone from before.

"Just tell her about them. You don't have to tell her about being the Flash or anything about Zoom but just let her in. Let her help. That's all she wants."

Barry nodded and leant back on his pillows. He needed to let people help, starting with Patty would be a good idea. He vowed to talk to her next time he saw her but for now he just wanted to sleep.

He took Iris' hand again and turned over to curl in the bed. His eyes slipped closed and with a sigh, our hero fell asleep.


End file.
